DV Journal

(This article first appeared in Broad + Liberty)

On October 19, 2024, the presidential election was still two and a half weeks away. Voting by mail or absentee ballot had begun across the commonwealth. Conflicting polls signaled a nailbiter.

In Delaware County, where deep Democratic turnout had helped boost Biden in 2020, the elections board was preparing to open up three “voter service centers” in addition to one at the county seat in Media, where a voter could request and receive a mail-in ballot, or get help with a ballot that needed to be replaced. Drop boxes were conveniently located less than 100 feet away from two of the four locations.

Late that afternoon, Colleen Guiney, chair of the county Democratic party texted County Councilwoman Christine Reuther, also a Democrat, and said, “Do you think there’s any point in trying to have volunteers outside the media voter service center to help when the lines get long? I don’t know if it’s a bad idea interfere [sic] with voting or if it might be helpful.”

“We may wind up helping more Rs than Ds,” Reuther texted back, exposing a sharp partisan lens. “I am not sure there is much to help with.”

The text is one of a handful of messages from county officials obtained by Broad + Liberty showing select members of an all-Democratic council feeling at ease mingling their official jobs with their more partisan selves, blurring the ethical lines of a duty to administer the election in a nonpartisan way.

Four days later on Oct. 23, Guiney again texted Reuther, this time about a potential drop box in Chester Township, a municipality so Democratic it would eventually vote for Harris over Trump by an 89-11 split.

“Has Jim made any progress with a Chester Drop box?” Guiney asked, apparently making a reference to Delaware County Elections Director Jim Allen.

“Not as [of] yesterday. I can’t be the only squeaky wheel without opening the [door] to ‘partisan [pressure] claims. I spoke to [election board members] Scott Alberts and will try to reach Ashley [Lunkenheimer]. Can you get other people to write emails to him and the election board that they are getting confusion from voters?”

Reuther, like Guiney, appears eager to get the Chester drop box open. But the exchange seems to imply if Reuther were to bring this up to Allen, he might rebuff her. Reuther then appears to work with Guiney to launder her complaints through others so the complaints will look organic and public, rather than having originated from an incumbent elected official.

When Broad + Liberty reached out for comment and said the text was problematic, the county took issue with that characterization, but did not offer any different version of facts.

“It’s unclear what is supposedly problematic about a member of Council providing suggestions as to how residents can provide feedback,” Michael Connolly, Delaware County’s communication director, replied. “A resident reached out to Councilwoman Reuther, who looked into the issue raised and exhausted what could be done at the time to address the concern.”

Connolly did not respond to questions about the previous Reuther text regarding help that might “wind up helping more Rs than Ds.” Guiney also did not respond to a request for comment.

In yet another text, Reuther told Guiney, “If the General assembly does not fix the election code, I may urge the election board to stop doing over the counter voting. It is not good for the staff and the SURE system is not set up to handle it.”

The complaints naturally suggest the question of how long councilwoman Reuther has felt these concerns, given that she has been one of the biggest advocates for expanding various methods of voting. She was one of the leaders, if not the top leader, in 2020 for the county’s acceptance and use of the controversial grants doled out by the Chicago nonprofit Center for Tech and Civic Life, or CTCL.

The chairman of the Delaware County GOP blasted the revelations.

“One party controlling all facets of government is not what was ever intended by our forefathers. This is precisely what we have in Delaware County, and my sense is very few people, regardless of party, see this as in the best interest of our citizenry,” Delco GOP Chairman Frank Agovino told Broad + Liberty after reviewing the texts and documents.

“Recent comments from one of our elected Council members is just another example of absolute power corrupting absolutely. Comments made about discerning which services would benefit ‘Rs’ more than ‘Ds’ when it came to the establishment of Voter Servicing Centers is just another reason people distrust the management and integrity of elections in Delaware County.”

Agovino’s comments come in a year in which Republicans are ambitious about putting a dent in the council’s 5-0 Democratic tilt, especially after the council raised taxes 23 percent last year.

Emails obtained by Broad + Liberty also showed Council President Monica Taylor using her government email account to help organize and promote a “Souls to the Polls” get-out-the-vote drive.

Souls to the Polls is explicitly nonpartisan. For example, the website for the Philadelphia-area branch says the group is a “non-partisan, neighbor-to-neighbor project,” and that “[w]e serve voters regardless of their affiliation.”

Yet because Souls to the Polls has been affiliated with black churches for so long, and because the black population has been such a reliable Democrat voting block for well over half a century, it sometimes appears Democratic-aligned. Consider that the North Carolina Democratic Party directly boosted Souls to the Polls on its website in 2022.

Vice President Harris frequently coordinated her campaign with Souls to the Polls as well.

“Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign is launching its ‘Souls to the Polls’ effort this weekend to turn out Black churchgoers in battleground states as Election Day approaches,” an ABC news report on Oct. 11 said.

One of the religious leaders emailing with Councilwoman Taylor said, “Our mandate is clear: to do all we can to ensure an optimal outcome of the Presidential election” — rhetoric that seems far from neutral.

Yet the county not only said Taylor’s actions using her government-sponsored email were OK, they were laudable.

“More people lawfully participating in free and fair elections is a good thing. Who someone chooses to vote for is their business, but the county does dispute any attempt to characterize assisting voters as something nefarious,” Connolly said.

Still another email shows the county was actively shopping for employees to staff the “voter service centers” (VSCs), but that the county was doing that weeks before the election board would finally approve them.

That revelation is important because it adds another data point to a controversy that erupted close to the election’s conclusion when the only Republican on the election board, John McBlain, announced his resignation in protest of the creation of the VSCs.

When the VSCs were voted on officially on Oct. 11, McBlain said he witnessed a coordinated plan.

“So, at the time of the [Oct. 11] meeting, it was clear that there was a partisan [effort] to pack the room in favor of this. There were dozens of Democratic committee people or volunteers,” McBlain said days after that meeting. “There were a dozen or more members of the League of Women voters who were nothing more than the provisional wing of the Delaware County Democratic Party who were present to speak in favor of it.”

According to the email obtained by Broad + Liberty, on Sept. 12, 2024, a staffing coordinator for a temporary employment agency emailed an elections administrator. “I will be working on the positions for the satellite offices, please let me know when you have a firm decision on those,” the staffing coordinator said.

The county is correct in asserting that it had brought up the issue of VSCs prior to September. It is also correct to say that the discussion of those VSCs was glancing.

“We’re exploring the possibility — I want to emphasize the word ‘exploring’ — voter service centers,” Elections Director Allen said in June.

“Voter service centers: Currently we don’t have anything nailed down. We are examining options in the western part of the county. We’ll be approaching Chester Heights for the western part of the county as well as Upper Darby,” Allen subsequently said in August. “Additionally we have to be satisfied that we’re going to be able to staff that properly with persons who are very familiar with the inner workings of the SURE system,” Allen added.

In September, VSCs came up again, but for less than two minutes of the entire meeting, which focused almost exclusively on the one VSC at the county seat in Media.

The county did not directly answer a question about whether the VSCs were a fait accompli.

Another issue raised by one of the Souls to the Polls emails discussed earlier is that the email used language about the VSCs that had become forbidden for various legal and technical reasons.

“We would plan to arrive at the Churches around 8:30 for breakfast and pickup would begin at 9:30 to head to the polls,” the email said, (emphasis added).

In public comments by Democrats on VSCs or satellite election offices, officials have taken care not to call them polling places, because that verbiage came with real-world consequences.

In the 2020 election, Philadelphia set up numerous satellite election offices around the city, but when the Trump campaign asked for poll watchers to have access to the spaces, they were denied.

At the core of the argument was the notion that the “satellite election offices” were clones, so to speak, of each county’s home-based election office in the county seat. Only by saying the offices were providing the “ministerial duties” of the county, it was impossible for them to be actual polling places.

The Trump campaign filed suit and the issue went all the way to Commonwealth Court where a three-judge panel upheld that reasoning in a 2-1 vote.

“The Trial Court reasoned that the Election Code provides that polling places operate only on Election Day and are available only to voters residing in specific districts, whereas satellite offices are restricted by neither date nor location,” the majority ruling held. “The Trial Court further explained that the Election Code specifically provides that mail-in ballots cannot be delivered to polling places, but must be sent to the Board’s offices or placed in drop boxes.”

The lone dissenting judge, Patricia McCullough, blasted that thinking in her dissent, saying “the act of voting undoubtedly occurs when an elector completes and delivers a mail-in ballot in person ‘to said county board of election.’”

The email calling VSCs “the polls” is similar to another instance discovered by Broad + Liberty in which the behind-the-scenes language differed from the public-facing discussion. In a 2020 document authored by two nonprofits, the Philadelphia-based Committee of 70, and the nationally focused organization Vote at Home Institute, the groups said satellite election centers would provide for “de facto early voting.”

If those same groups or if county governments had called satellite election offices “early voting centers” or “polling places” it’s very likely the legal challenge from the Trump team to place poll watchers at the sites might have been successful. The entire legal argument from the counties was centered on the idea that a satellite election office is critically different and distinct from a polling place.

As for the partisan lens Reuther displayed in her text that worried more Republican voters might be helped, she, too, has been caught in controversial moments before.

In preparation for the 2020 election, with the coronavirus pandemic still in first-year bloom, the Chicago-based nonprofit Center for Tech and Civic Life offered election grants to election offices around the country. Although the grants would eventually become an open call to any county government in the nation, it began as an invitation-only outreach, and Delaware County was among the lucky counties to be chosen.

Broad + Liberty obtained county emails about the grants. In one of those, an attorney raised the issue with Reuther that the CTCL might have a left-leaning bias.

“Not at all surprising,” Reuther said in response. “I am seeking funds to fairly and safely administer the election so everyone legally registered to vote can do so and have their votes count. If a left leaning public charity wants to further my objective, I am good with it. I will deal with the blow back.”

Despite those concerns, when the county announced its cooperation with the CTCL, it described the organization as “nonpartisan.”

(This article first appeared in Broad + Liberty.)

Delaware County election board member John McBlain has resigned, accusing the panel of rushing to add three “voter service centers” in deeply Democratic parts of the suburban Philadelphia county, something he said adds a blatant element of unfairness to the county’s election process.

McBlain, the lone Republican on Delaware County’s election board, has been the minority party appointee on the three-member election board since 2021. All members of the election board are appointed by the county council, which has been majority-Democratic since early 2020. A provision in the county’s charter ensures a check on the majority party, however, requiring that at least one member of the election board be a representative of the minority party.

At a special meeting of the election board on Friday, McBlain announced his intention to quit effective at the end of November, saying his decision was due to the board’s approval of three voter service centers in Upper Darby, Chester, and Chester Heights — all three Democratic strongholds.

“I thought I could serve on this board as long as I believed that we were making sure the elections were both secure and fair,” McBlain began at the end of the meeting on Friday, October 11. “I think the board has put their finger on the scale, so I don’t think that that fairness aspect is there anymore. Therefore, I — as much as I’m tempted to do it, as of effective immediately — I tender my resignation as of November 30th, 2024, so that I’ll complete my duties during the election certification process. But then I hereby resign from the board after that date.”

Voter service centers (VSCs) are essentially no different than “satellite election offices” which were controversial as far back as the 2020 general election. Whichever name is used, the creation is meant to be a literal extension of the county’s primary election office — the one place where a voter could register to vote, request a mail-in ballot, and return that ballot, all at the same time and same place. Philadelphia’s satellite election offices drew the ire of Republicans that year because Philadelphia refused to allow poll watchers anywhere inside, arguing that the locations were county election offices, so they could not be polling places. A Commonwealth Court ruling later upheld that argument to exclude poll watchers.

Like Philadelphia, Delaware County also used satellite election offices in 2020, the rationale largely being the pandemic. But according to McBlain, since 2020 “the only voter service center that we’ve maintained has been [the original and main election office] at the Media courthouse, and we’ve done that for each election, and that has been adequate.”

Now, McBlain says, the three VSCs seem to be created spur of the moment, and they’re in some of the deepest blue parts of the county.

“I don’t understand what has changed. We are down — I want to say by more than a third, if not two thirds — the number of applications for mail-in votes as we were in 2020,” McBlain said.

“There’s no more pandemic where we need to sort of spread things out. There’s not a need for it. The Media [county seat] office is more than adequately handling all requests for registration for applications to handle receipt of mail-in or absentee ballots,” McBlain told Broad + Liberty after his resignation. “No one has been calling publicly for [VSCs]. I don’t recall one member of the public attending a previous meeting this year [prior to Oct. 11] and advocating that we ought to have voter service centers for better service to the residents.”

In the September 24 meeting of the election board, county election director Jim Allen distinctly raised the possibility of adding VSCs, and listed only the sites of Upper Darby, Chester, and Chester Heights as possibilities.

But it’s what happened next that troubled McBlain the most.

McBlain says just after that meeting, he was talking to Allen. Then Donna Cantor, who McBlain says is a lawyer for the county Democratic party, approached them both.

“She [Cantor] came up to Mr. Allen and said to him that Colleen Guiney, the chairwoman of the [county] Democratic Party, had the list of volunteers to staff the voter services center ready. And I expressed shock,” McBlain said.

“I said, ‘I didn’t realize that we had decided that we were going to have voter services centers.’ And to Jim Allen’s credit, I mean, he immediately said ‘Well, listen at any voter services centers, we’re not going to have partisan volunteers staffing.’ But the Democratic Party was already prepared to staff these voter services centers at the September meeting where again, it was discussed almost in passing,” McBlain explained.

Election Director Allen did not directly refute that a conversation with Cantor happened, but he did offer his own context.

“[S]omeone approached me about the possible use of volunteers, in front of Mr. McBlain, and I turned away the suggestion. There were no specifics or a ‘list,’” he said.

Cantor did not respond to a request for comment asking if she disputed McBlain’s version of the conversation.

Guiney responded to a request for comment, but did not answer specific questions about whether the county Democrats were somehow prepared to staff VSCs before the VSCs were even discussed publicly and approved. Guiney mostly filibustered.

“It is a matter of public record that voter services centers are located in areas convenient to public transit, and in facilities already wired into the secure Delaware County communications system,” Guiney said. “We have had Voter Service Centers in previous elections, and surrounding counties have already opened Voter Service Centers this cycle. This matter has already been discussed on the publicly streamed Board of Elections leading up to the most recent meeting.

“The Democratic party has robust volunteer engagement, but the County is not using volunteers in the Voter Service Centers. Any Delaware County resident, of any political party is welcome to apply for a temporary position with the Board of Elections by contacting the Bureau of Elections for more information,” Guiney concluded.

For the public comment portion of the Oct. 11 special meeting, 21 total people rose to address the election board. A Broad + Liberty analysis showed five of them spoke about regular polling locations, one spoke about poll worker safety, thirteen spoke in favor of adding VSCs, and two expressed concerns about VSCs.

“So at the time of the [Oct. 11] meeting, it was clear that there was a partisan [effort] to pack the room in favor of this. There were dozens of Democratic committee people or volunteers,” McBlain said. “There were a dozen or more members of the League of Women voters who were nothing more than the provisional wing of the Delaware County Democratic Party who were present to speak in favor of it.”

A request for comment to the two other members of the election board, sent to them via the county’s spokesperson, was not returned.

Democratic State Representative and chair of the Upper Darby Democratic committee Heather Boyd was among the thirteen who spoke in favor of the measure. Others included a county Democratic committee member, someone that ran for delegate to the Democratic National Convention last May, as well as a donor to a local Democratic candidate, and the founder of a progressive group in Delco. Two persons from the League of Women Voters also spoke.

One Drexel Hill resident questioned the rationale of the satellite site locations. “I’m also concerned about the equity of these polling places, these satellite polling places. Where is the equity for the communities that have heavy Republican presence? Where is their pop-up satellite location [in] communities such as Parkside, Trainer, and Upland — communities that are also considered perhaps low income communities, where is their pop-up voting site?”

McBlain also said VSCs came up very briefly but somewhat unseriously months ago, he suggested the county survey all municipalities to see which ones might be interested, but that the county never acted on that suggestion.

To anyone thinking McBlain has a hair trigger for an election conspiracy need only listen to his Democrat counterparts to understand that’s not the case.

“I think you served the board with great distinction,” Election Board Chairwoman Ashley Lunkenheimer said upon hearing McBlain’s intention to resign. “I think there’s very few in the county or in the commonwealth who have a better knowledge of election law and I think that your viewpoint has always been well served on this board, but I appreciate that you’re continuing your duties than through the election because we need — you have a really good perspective on elections.”

“John McBlain is someone who I’m gonna disagree with on a great many policy issues, but we both have the same factual understanding of how elections are conducted,” Democratic Councilwoman Christine Reuther told the Inquirer in November, when Reuther was about to renominate him to the election board. “He doesn’t see conspiracy theories every time you turn around.”

Reuther’s November comments to the Inquirer came just as a long-simmering partisan power struggle over the election board was about to come to a close. Earlier in the year, the county council passed an ordinance that would allow it to reject the minority party’s nomination for the election board. The resolution went further, saying that the county had the “unfettered discretion” to reject as many candidates from the minority party as it liked until it found a suitable candidate.

Council Democrats passed the ordinance in January of 2023. Republicans quickly denounced the move as a power grab. When Republicans sued in June, a spokesperson for the council accused Delco Republicans of playing politics.

“Interestingly, the Delco GOP public statements on this case suggests [sic] a ‘blatant power grab,’” the county said in a statement to the Delco Daily Times. “However, the change in law which is being challenged was passed on January 17, 2023. Now, more than five months later, has the lawsuit [sic] been filed. It appears less an effort to secure a fair election, and more a weak effort to develop a talking point for an upcoming county election.”

However, a judge ruled in December the ordinance was illegal and struck it down.

“The Ordinance was an arrogant attempt by County Council to create a veto power for themselves to block the right of the Delaware County Republican Party Chairman to nominate his preferred member to the Delaware County Board of Elections,” said Wally Zimolong, one of the attorneys who fought the suit on behalf of the county GOP.

Reuther, the member of council who oversees the county’s elections, has also danced on the partisan tightrope in a presidential election before.

In 2020, Reuther was clearly the lead on the county’s pursuit of and eventual acceptance of election grants from the Chicago-based Center for Tech and Civic Life, or CTCL. Those grants would later be famous for receiving a $350 million infusion from Mark Zuckerberg

As Delaware County got nearer to accepting the grant, the county solicitor flagged to Reuther some of the left-leaning tendencies of the granting agency.

“Not at all surprising,” Reuther said in response. “I am seeking funds to fairly and safely administer the election so everyone legally registered to vote can do so and have their votes count. If a left leaning public charity wants to further my objective, I am good with it. I will deal with the blow back.”

The Pennsylvania General Assembly later banned local election offices from accepting grants from outside, private agencies, in part because of the concerns that the grants resulted in improper and unbalanced political influence.

McBlain was not a part of the election board at that time.

But this time, he says it’s not election security he’s worried about.

“I think this is the Delaware County Democratic Party putting their hand on the scale with these voter services centers to literally get out the vote in highly partisan areas of the county without any consideration of [if] there’s a reason that they didn’t come in and offer it in Marple or Springfield. So I just wasn’t going to be part of it anymore. I’m disgusted with this partisanship showing its head at the 11th hour.”

Voters in Bucks, Chester, Delaware, and Montgomery Counties head to the polls on Tuesday to decide several races across the Delaware Valley.

A Montgomery County judge, Republican Carolyn Carluccio, is in the most high-profile race in the state. She is facing Democrat Dan McCaffery for a seat on the state Supreme Court. Carluccio is president judge on Montgomery County’s Court of Common Pleas. McCaffery, a Philadelphian, sits on the state Superior Court. The pair are vying for an opening left by last year’s death of Chief Justice Max Baer.

Around $22 million has been spent on the Carluccio-McCaffery race. That includes donations from labor groups, the Pennsylvania Trial Lawyers Association’s political action committee, and the Commonwealth Leaders Fund. Despite the spending, a recent Franklin & Marshall Poll found that 7 in 10 registered voters don’t have an opinion on either Carluccio or McCaffery.

Democrats would remain in control of the court if Carluccio would be elected, but it would be a slim 4-3 majority. Should McCaffery win, the court would keep its 5-2 Democrat majority.

Other statewide elections include the Superior Court judge race featuring Democrats Jill Beck and Timika Lane and Republicans Harry F. Smail Jr. and Maria Battista. There is also the Commonwealth Court race between Republican Megan Martin and Democrat Matt Wolf.

Voters in all the counties are electing Common Pleas judges and nominees for various row offices.

Delaware County voters will decide a variety of important races. Three seats on the county council are up for grabs, including those currently held by three Democrats: Chair Monica Taylor, Ph.D., Vice Chair Elaine Paul Schaefer, and Christine A. Ruther. They are being challenged by Republicans Joy Schwartz, Jeffrey O. Jones, and Upland Borough Mayor William Dennon.

Republican attorney Beth Stefanide-Miscichowski has made concerns about rising crime the centerpiece of her race against incumbent Delaware County District Attorney Jack Stollsteimer, a Democrat.

The fiscally-flailing City of Chester is almost certain to get its first new mayor in seven years. City Councilman Stefan Roots defeated incumbent Mayor Thaddeus Kirkland in the Democratic primary in May. Roots will face independent Anita J. Littleton.

Polls open at 7 a.m. on Tuesday and close at 8 p.m. To see a sample ballot, click here.

Bucks County elections have been peppered with controversy, including Democratic candidates putting the name of popular Republican District Attorney Matt Weintraub on their own campaign signs — without his permission.

“I was disappointed to learn that my name has been used by the Marseglia-Harvie campaign without my authorization or permission,” Weintraub, who’s running for Common Pleas judge, told DVJournal.

That would be Bucks County Commissioners Diane M. Ellis-Marseglia and fellow Democrat County Commission Board Chair Robert Harvie Jr., who are seeking second terms in office. Pamela A. Van Blunk, currently serving as Bucks County Controller, is running as a team with Republican Gene DiGirolamo, who is seeking a second term. Van Blunk and DiGirolamo have also made rising crime the centerpiece of their campaign.

There are also multiple races for the Central Bucks School District board, as well as other school boards across the DelVal. School District 1 voters will be picking between Democratic incumbent Karen Smith and Republican challenger Dr. Stephen Mass. District 2 features incumbent Republican Dana Hunter, the current school board president, against Democrat Heather Reynolds. In District 3, it’s Democrat Dana Foley against Republican Glenn Schloeffel. District 6 is a race between Republican Aarati P. Martino and Democrat Rick Haring. District 8 features Democrat Susan M. Gibson against Tony Arjona.

Polls open at 7 a.m. and close at 8 p.m. on Tuesday. Sample ballots can be accessed here.

Montgomery County will see a major change in its leadership with the election of two new commissioners to the three-seat board. Jamila Winder, who was appointed to fill out the remainder of Val Arkoosh’s term, is running for election as a Democrat. Lawyer Neil Makhija, who ran for state representative in Carbon County in 2016, is running as a Democrat. Republicans Thomas DiBello, a businessman, and Liz Ferry, an Upper Dublin commissioner, are also seeking voters’ approval.

Other major contests include the sheriff’s race between Democratic incumbent Sean P. Kilkenny and Republican Ed Moye.

Polls open at 7 a.m. and close at 8 p.m. on Tuesday. Sample ballots can be found here. People looking to see if they can vote in the election can get more information here.

Chester County’s polls are open from 7 a.m. until 8 p.m.

A referendum expanding the Honey Brook Township Board of Supervisors from three to five is creating local buzz.

There will also be a new District Attorney in Chester County. Ryan L. Hyde is running as a Republican against Democrat Christopher de Barrena-Sarobe.

There could also be turnover on the County Board of Commissioners. Incumbent Democrats Josh Maxwell and Marian Moskowitz are running for re-election. They are facing Republicans David C. Sommers and Eric Roe. The Democrats, who became the first Democratic majority to run the county in 2019, tout their record of inclusivity, affordable housing, and the environment. But the Republicans point to the escape of convicted murderer Danilo Cavalcante from the county prison despite a previous escape by an inmate using the same method, as a reason to question Maxwell and Moskowitz’s competency. Both serve on the Prison Board, along with Sheriff Fredda Maddox, also a Democrat. who is running for Common Pleas Judge. Her Chief Deputy Kevin Dykes, a Democrat, is being challenged by former sheriff’s deputy Republican Roy Kofroth.

A sample ballot can be found here.

At a press conference outside Delaware Memorial Hospital on Monday, Delaware County Council Chair Monica Taylor, Ph.D. sounded the alarm about the hospital’s emergency room closing.

After the hospital company announced the hospital would be changing to a mental health facility without an ER, the Foundation for Delaware County sued for an injunction. The hospital is appealing a court ruling granting it.

“The health and safety of the tens of thousands of residents who live in the eastern section of Delaware County is in jeopardy,” said Taylor. “On Friday evening, the Pennsylvania Department of Health announced an order closing the Emergency Department here at Delaware County Memorial Hospital due to staffing.

“Pennsylvania Department of Health’s decision to suspend operations at Delaware County Memorial Hospital, owned by Prospect Holdings, is a direct result of (parent company) Prospect’s failure to adequately staff Delaware County Memorial Hospital,” said Taylor.

“Prospect’s recent history shows a gross lack of concern for the well-being of Delaware County residents. On September 21, Prospect announced its intention to close the hospital within 60 days. They were faced with legal action to remain open, which they then appealed. It isn’t by chance that Prospect is now unable to adequately staff the hospital- which has resulted in the state shutting them down,” Taylor said.

“As you can imagine, that is a severe concern to the county, to the tens of thousands of residents who live in this section of the county, to the nurses and medical staff who treat the community here at the hospital, and to the EMS members who transport residents here for lifesaving care. In a lifesaving situation, seconds can save a life.”

Frances Sheehan, president of the Foundation for Delaware County, said the foundation was formed six years ago when Prospect Medical Holdings, parent company of Crozer Medical, bought the hospital. Prospect agreed to keep ER services through 2026 but “has not honored that commitment to the community.”

The Foundation secured a temporary injunction, but with the state’s decision, “Prospect has shown a level of contempt for the court and for the health and well-being of the people of Eastern Delaware County. Again and again, Prospect has proven that they are not a trusted partner.”

With the help of the district attorney and the attorney general, the foundation will “pursue all legal options available,” said Sheehan. “People’s lives and health are at stake right here, right now.”

Taylor said, “As a mother, I am concerned for the many young women in the community who were receiving pre-natal care here, and who now need to travel to a hospital in another section of the county or to Philadelphia or Montgomery County to get the vital care they need throughout their pregnancies and then also care for their newborns and children,” Taylor said.

“Traveling to the next closest hospital is not an easy and viable option for some women. The same is true for some of the elderly residents who live in this section of the county. And for those who don’t have a vehicle and rely on public transportation or walking. This is a major barrier for them to access healthcare,” she said.

“The closure of the hospital greatly impacts some of our most vulnerable residents and historically underserved communities. Through the past year, Prospect has shown little to no regard to the safety and well-being of our community and the county has, and will continue, to do everything in its power to ensure the hospital stays open.

The county is also continuing to explore all of our legal options to try to keep the hospital open,” she said.

Asked to respond, the hospital sent this message. “Crozer Health received an order from the Pennsylvania Department of Health advising us that due to staffing issues, we must close the Emergency Department at Delaware County Memorial Hospital until further notice, beginning at 7:00 a.m. on Monday, November 7,” said Crozer Health CEO Tony Esposito. “We have alerted nearby emergency departments and EMS, including our Taylor Hospital and Crozer-Chester Medical Center, that are prepared to see patients.”

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